Is the WWE‘s big little show in trouble? 205 Live airs every week after Smackdown Live and is set up as a platform for the WWE’s Cruiserweight division to shine. Coming off the success of the supremely popular Cruiserweight Classic tournament, the show premiered in late November of 2016 and the members of the show (most all who were from the CWC tourney) have put on some solid matches since the brands inception. I think. See, I haven’t actually been watching 205 Live and apparently I’m not alone.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, 205 Live has been performing very poorly on the WWE Network. The show is apparently being beaten (numbers wise) on a weekly basis by NXT, a show that is taped. It appears that a large chunk of fans aren’t changing the channel after Smackdown Live to follow along.
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But really, can you blame them? There is currently nothing “must see” about 205 Live. Casual fans assume they will catch any of the important cruiser matches on Raw or pay per view. Ironically, giving the 205 Live stars a showcase on Raw has only hurt their product. Many of the matches shown on Tuesday nights are simply re-arrangements of matches that have already been show on Raw, the home for the cruiserweight division. Since its inception, only one title change has taken place on 205 Live – when Rich Swann defeated Brian Kendrick for the championship.
There have also been mixed responses regarding the Smackdown Live crowds in person and 205 Live. In some cases, we have heard that a solid chunk of the crowd sticks around to watch 205 Live after Smackdown. In other arenas, there are a ton of visible empty seats and a lot of fans leave. Meltzer noted that taping the show before Smackdown Live begins could help from a crowd reaction standpoint.
While that certainly would help, a better solution would be to drop Raw down to two hours and let the 205 Live stars have the first hour to themselves to really tell a program. They could show it live on USA and replay it on WWE Network, adding in more tournament-esque specials that are specific to the show, as the tournament format was a big part of what made the CWC stand out.
Not only would this make the 205 Live stars feel like a bigger deal, but it would give Raw the same 2 hour format that has made Smackdown Live consistently feel like the fresher main roster show.
Right now more people are tuned into NXT because it feels like its own universe. 205 Live feels like the little brother tagging along to his older brother’s basketball game.
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